Henry Kravis

Henry Kravis
Born	Henry Roberts Kravis 6 1, 1944
Birthplace	Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Businessman, investor, philanthropist
Known for	Co-founding KKR & Co.; pioneering leveraged buyouts
Education	Columbia University (MBA)
Children	3
Awards	Lewis H. Durland Memorial Lecture (2025)
Website	[https://www.kkr.com/ Official site]

Henry Roberts Kravis (born January 6, 1944) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist who co-founded the global private equity and investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) in 1976. Along with his cousin George R. Roberts and mentor Jerome Kohlberg Jr., Kravis built KKR from a three-person operation with $120,000 into one of the world's largest and most influential alternative asset management firms. Kravis became a central figure in American finance during the 1980s, when KKR's $25 billion leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco in 1988 became the largest corporate takeover in history at that time, an event immortalized in the 1989 book Barbarians at the Gate and the subsequent 1993 television film of the same name. His career has been defined by the development and expansion of the leveraged buyout as a financial instrument, transforming how corporations are acquired, managed, and restructured. As of 2025, Kravis serves as co-executive chairman of KKR, continuing to shape the firm's global strategy, including significant investments in markets such as India and Europe.

Early Life

Henry Roberts Kravis was born on January 6, 1944, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He grew up in a prominent Tulsa family with connections to the oil and energy industries. His father, Raymond Kravis, was a successful petroleum engineer and businessman who had worked with the investment firm of Joseph P. Kennedy before establishing himself in the Oklahoma energy sector. The elder Kravis's career in finance and business provided Henry with early exposure to the world of deal-making and corporate transactions.

Kravis's cousin, George R. Roberts, would later become his lifelong business partner. The two grew up with a close familial bond and shared an early interest in business and finance that would eventually lead them to co-found one of the most consequential firms in the history of private equity.

The Kravis family experienced tragedy when Henry's son, Harrison S. Kravis, died in 1991 at the age of 19 while a student.

Education

Kravis pursued his undergraduate education before enrolling at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business, where he earned a Master of Business Administration degree. His time at Columbia provided him with a rigorous foundation in finance and management that would prove instrumental in his later career. The business school's emphasis on practical financial analysis and corporate valuation helped shape the analytical framework Kravis would later apply to leveraged buyout transactions. His education at Columbia also connected him with a network of finance professionals and future business leaders in New York City, the center of American corporate finance.

Kravis has maintained ties to academia throughout his career. In April 2025, he delivered the Lewis H. Durland Memorial Lecture at Cornell University, where he spoke on the topic of "redefining shared prosperity in private equity." He has also been associated with Claremont McKenna College, which houses the Kravis Leadership Institute, a center dedicated to leadership education and research.

Career

Early Career and the Founding of KKR

Before establishing KKR, Kravis worked at Bear Stearns, the prominent New York investment bank, where he first encountered the practice of leveraged buyouts. It was at Bear Stearns that Kravis and his cousin George Roberts worked under Jerome Kohlberg Jr., a senior partner who had been developing the concept of using borrowed funds to acquire companies. The three men worked together on early leveraged transactions at Bear Stearns through the late 1960s and into the 1970s, developing the financial techniques that would become the foundation of the modern private equity industry.

In 1976, Kravis, Roberts, and Kohlberg departed Bear Stearns to found Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. The firm began with modest resources — as Kravis himself has recalled, the three founders started with just $120,000 and a conviction that companies could be better managed under private ownership. The founding thesis of KKR was that by acquiring companies using a combination of equity and significant amounts of borrowed capital — a leveraged buyout — the new owners could improve operations, generate returns for investors, and create value that public market ownership structures often failed to unlock.

The firm's early deals were relatively small by later standards, focusing on middle-market companies. However, the success of these initial transactions demonstrated the viability of the leveraged buyout model and attracted increasing amounts of capital from institutional investors, including pension funds, insurance companies, and university endowments.

The Rise of the Leveraged Buyout

Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, KKR grew rapidly as the leveraged buyout market expanded. Kravis and Roberts developed a reputation for identifying undervalued or poorly managed companies, acquiring them with leveraged financing structures, and implementing operational improvements to increase their value. The firm's approach typically involved using the target company's own assets and cash flows as collateral for the debt used to finance the acquisition — a structure that allowed relatively small amounts of equity capital to control much larger enterprises.

KKR completed a series of increasingly large and prominent transactions during this period. The firm's deals helped define the era of corporate deal-making that characterized Wall Street in the 1980s. Kravis became one of the most recognized figures in American finance, embodying both the ambition and the controversy associated with the leveraged buyout movement.

The firm's activities drew both admiration and criticism. Supporters argued that leveraged buyouts imposed financial discipline on bloated corporate bureaucracies and generated significant returns for investors, including the pension funds of public employees. Critics contended that the practice loaded companies with unsustainable debt, led to layoffs and asset-stripping, and enriched financial intermediaries at the expense of workers and communities. Kravis's lifestyle attracted scrutiny from activists seeking to reform private equity regulations and restrict leveraged buyout practices.

The RJR Nabisco Buyout

The defining transaction of Kravis's career — and arguably the most famous leveraged buyout in history — was KKR's 1988 acquisition of RJR Nabisco, the food and tobacco conglomerate. The deal, valued at approximately $25 billion, was the largest corporate takeover ever completed at that time and became a landmark event in American business history.

The RJR Nabisco buyout involved a dramatic bidding war between KKR and a management-led group headed by F. Ross Johnson, then the CEO of RJR Nabisco. The competition for control of the company played out over several weeks in late 1988, with multiple rounds of escalating bids that captivated Wall Street and the broader public. KKR ultimately prevailed with a final offer that valued the company at $109 per share.

The transaction was chronicled in detail by journalists Bryan Burrough and John Helyar in their 1989 book Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, which became a bestseller and one of the most widely read accounts of Wall Street deal-making ever published. The book portrayed the excess and competitive intensity of the buyout era, with Kravis as one of its central figures. A television film adaptation, also titled Barbarians at the Gate, aired on HBO in 1993, further cementing the RJR Nabisco deal in popular culture.

The RJR Nabisco acquisition, while successful in terms of completing the transaction, proved to be a challenging investment. The enormous debt burden placed on the company, combined with shifts in the tobacco and food industries, made the investment's returns less spectacular than many of KKR's other deals. Nevertheless, the transaction established KKR as the preeminent firm in the leveraged buyout industry and made Kravis one of the most prominent financiers in the world.

Expansion and Diversification of KKR

Following the RJR Nabisco era, Kravis led KKR through a period of significant evolution and diversification. The firm expanded beyond traditional leveraged buyouts into a broader range of investment activities, including growth equity, real estate, infrastructure, energy, credit markets, and hedge fund strategies. This transformation reflected both the maturation of the private equity industry and Kravis's strategic vision for KKR as a diversified global investment firm rather than a pure buyout shop.

KKR completed its first real estate fund, raising $1.5 billion, marking the firm's entry into a new asset class. The firm also pursued major transactions in the retail and consumer sectors, including the notable acquisition of Toys "R" Us in 2005, in partnership with Bain Capital and Vornado Realty Trust.

KKR also expanded geographically, building a substantial international presence. The firm established operations across Europe, Asia, and other regions, reflecting Kravis's belief in the global applicability of private equity investment strategies. In a significant development, KKR took itself public, listing on the New York Stock Exchange, a move that transformed the firm from a private partnership into a publicly traded company and gave outside investors the ability to participate in KKR's management fees and investment returns.

Recent Activities and Global Strategy

As of 2025, Kravis serves as co-executive chairman of KKR alongside his cousin George Roberts, having transitioned from his previous role as co-CEO. In this capacity, he continues to play an active role in shaping the firm's strategic direction and maintaining relationships with investors, business leaders, and government officials around the world.

In June 2025, Kravis sold $154 million of KKR stock, his first significant stock sale in years, a transaction that attracted attention in financial markets given his long-standing practice of holding his shares in the firm.

Kravis has been particularly vocal about KKR's interest in India as a major growth market. In late 2025, he stated that KKR could deploy as much as $20 billion in India over the next decade, citing the country's economic growth, improving business environment, and the quality of its companies and entrepreneurs. Kravis remarked that "the quality of what I'm seeing here in India is starting to be as good as many in the US," signaling a significant strategic commitment to the Indian market.

On macroeconomic matters, Kravis has shared his views on several topics affecting global markets. In October 2025, he commented on the global tariffs environment, stating that globalization was not ending but was being restructured. He also addressed concerns about inflation, characterizing it as "sticky," and discussed opportunities in the security, defense, and private credit sectors. In the same month, he pushed back against warnings that collapses of certain companies in the private credit space could signal systemic risk, arguing that the private debt market did not pose a systemic threat.

Kravis's influence also extends to the mentorship and development of investment professionals. In a 2025 account, KKR partner Alisa Wood recalled that she had been rejected by Kravis when she first applied to the firm in 2003, receiving a rejection letter that she kept throughout her career. She eventually joined KKR and rose to become one of the firm's top partners. Oliver Haarmann, the founder of Searchlight Capital Partners, has also cited advice from Kravis as influential in his career.

Personal Life

Kravis has been married multiple times. His second wife, Carolyne Roehm, was a fashion designer. His third wife, Marie-Josée Drouin, is an economist and public policy expert who has served on numerous boards and in advisory roles. Kravis has three children.

His second wife, fashion designer Hedi Kravis, died in 1997 at the age of 49. She had been recognized as one of New York's leading interior designers and a prominent figure in the city's social scene.

Kravis has been affiliated with the Republican Party and has been a significant political donor over the course of his career. He has maintained a prominent position in New York social and philanthropic circles and has been involved with a number of civic and cultural organizations. He has served on the board of the New York City Partnership. He has also been a member of The Business Council, serving on its executive committee.

Recognition

Kravis's career in finance and his philanthropic activities have resulted in numerous forms of recognition. Several institutions bear his name, reflecting the scale of his charitable giving.

The Kravis Prize, administered through Claremont McKenna College, recognizes leadership and innovation in the nonprofit sector. The prize is associated with the college's Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership program. Claremont McKenna also houses the Kravis Leadership Institute, which conducts research and educational programs focused on leadership development.

In 2025, Kravis was invited to deliver the Lewis H. Durland Memorial Lecture at Cornell University, one of the institution's named lecture series. His lecture, delivered on April 22, 2025, focused on the theme of shared prosperity in private equity, reflecting the evolving public discourse around the role of private capital in economic development.

Kravis has been the subject of extensive media coverage throughout his career. His role in the RJR Nabisco buyout led to his portrayal in Barbarians at the Gate, both the book and the HBO film, which brought the world of leveraged buyouts to a mass audience. He has been profiled in numerous financial publications and has appeared on major business media platforms, including Bloomberg Television, where he has discussed macroeconomic conditions, investment strategy, and the future of private equity.

Legacy

Henry Kravis's impact on the financial industry has been substantial. Along with his co-founders, he helped create and institutionalize the leveraged buyout as a mainstream financial tool, transforming corporate ownership structures and the broader landscape of mergers and acquisitions. The firm he co-founded, KKR, has grown from its origins as a three-person partnership into a global investment firm managing hundreds of billions of dollars across multiple asset classes and geographies.

The leveraged buyout model that Kravis helped pioneer has had far-reaching consequences for corporate governance, capital markets, and the structure of the investment management industry. The techniques developed by KKR — including the use of management incentives, operational improvements, and financial engineering to create value in acquired companies — have been adopted and adapted by hundreds of private equity firms worldwide. The industry that Kravis helped build has become a major force in global finance, with private equity firms controlling significant portions of the economy in the United States and internationally.

At the same time, the leveraged buyout model has remained a subject of debate. Critics have argued that excessive debt loads imposed on acquired companies can lead to financial distress, job losses, and reduced investment in long-term growth. Kravis and KKR have responded to such criticisms by emphasizing the operational improvements and value creation that private equity ownership can bring, a theme Kravis addressed directly in his 2025 Durland Lecture at Cornell on "redefining shared prosperity in private equity."

Kravis's emphasis on global expansion, particularly his recent focus on India as a major investment destination, reflects the continued evolution of the private equity industry from its American origins into a global enterprise. His statement that KKR could deploy $20 billion in India over the next decade represents one of the largest commitments to the Indian market by a single investment firm and signals the growing importance of emerging markets in the private equity landscape.

Within the financial industry, Kravis has served as a mentor and reference point for subsequent generations of private equity professionals, as evidenced by the careers of individuals such as Alisa Wood at KKR and Oliver Haarmann at Searchlight Capital Partners, both of whom have cited Kravis's influence on their professional development.